AuthorTopic: Nikon Announces Android Powered Camera (Read 2518 times)

RFPhotography

The reason behind this is, supposedly, to try and stem the tide of lost compact camera sales to people using smartphone cameras. One of the nice things about using a smartphone to replace a P&S digicam is that you only have to carry one device.

With this Nikon you're still going to have to carry two. The camera still can't connect on its own via cell wireless. It needs to use another phone as a hotspot or connect via a public wifi hotspot. It doesn't solve the problem that has led to the drop in P&S camera sales.

The other aspect of using a smartphone/camera as a single device is size. This camera is much larger than a smartphone and not nearly as easily pocketable.

The reason behind this is, supposedly, to try and stem the tide of lost compact camera sales to people using smartphone cameras.

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I don't think this as a lot of chance of success. Thoughts?

That's simply assumption by a bad market analyst, or perhaps it is forum gibberish somewhere, but that can not, in any meaningful way, correspond with reality. Changing to Android, is simply changing the OS, which is more likely about connectivity, both social and domestic, than it is about competition to smartphones.

Pocket cameras get smarter, their userinteraction becomes more complex due to newer technology like high resolution touch screens and faster multicore controllers, so it is only natural to change to more sophisticated and applicable system software.

Logged

Regards,Oscar

RFPhotography

It's well known, Oscar that P&S camera sales have dropped pretty dramatically in recent years and a big reason is the proliferation of smartphones. The cameras in smartphones are now really quite good. On par with many of the small, fully automated P&S cams. Camera makers know and acknowledge this. What other rationale do you have for the drop in P&S sales?

Why not a route towards working with cell phone manufacturers to produce an Apple iPhone with an interchangeable Nikon lens mount? How about legacy lens adapters for it? What would the crop factor be using a FF lens on a cell phone sized sensor?

I could easily see things going in that direction. I don't think I would follow anyone down that path.

Zeiss has already slapped their name onto some cell phone camera lenses if I'm not mistaken...

It's well known, Oscar that P&S camera sales have dropped pretty dramatically in recent years and a big reason is the proliferation of smartphones. The cameras in smartphones are now really quite good. On par with many of the small, fully automated P&S cams. Camera makers know and acknowledge this.

I don't dispute that. However, I don't see the connection between dropped sales and choice of operating system.

Logged

Regards,Oscar

RFPhotography

The smartphone is a convenient device because it can do a lot of things. It can be a phone and an internet device. It can also be a camera. A big plus with a camera in a smartphone is the ability to easily and quickly share pictures. The idea behind this camera from Nikon, then, is that by using the Android OS it gives people the ability to share pictures. Rather than having to go home, put the pictures on the computer, edit them then share them. There are basic picture editing apps available that, I'm sure, would be available for use on this camera as well. But it really doesn't increase convenience because it doesn't have 3G/4G/LTE connectivity on its own. It still needs another device (phone) or a wifi hotspot.

In order for a camera to play an integral part in our digital lives, it has to perform increasingly complex functions. I believe we agree on that. It therefore requires a more sophisticated operating system. Choosing the Android OS is a very natural choice to expand functionality and increase current and future compatibility with all kinds of other software, devices, and networks.

Sales will likely continue to drop for some time, although I do believe there remains a gap between smartphones and system-cameras that can easily be filled with a pocketcamera. However, the times of indiscriminately producing a multitude of similarly spec'd pocketcameras with no apparent discernible differentiation, are hopefully over.

Manufacturers now need to bring the number of models down to more basic choices that clearly represent the type of use. The functionality of these devices will simply be limitless in a relative sense, so there is no reason to produce different devices for slightly different functionality. The OS and UI layers define the ability of the user to demand simpler or more complex behavior.

I agree that this probably going to happen, but I have not seen any data backing up this assumption.

As far as Andoid goes, the potential to process images in device is at least as important as the connectivity part. As far as connectivity goes, With pocket wifi gaining popularity in many markets, a wifi enabled camera is Basically connected anywhere if you need it to be.

RFPhotography

Nikon admits that compact camera sales are down. There are numerous other sources as well. This one. Here. Here. Compact camera sales are down about 30% and images taken on smartphones are up about 50%. SLR sales are also up about 10%.

Most digital cameras can, essentially, process images in camera. Various picture styles and other effects that can be added give this flexibility. There are all manner of apps available both for Android and the iPhone for picture 'editing'. Keep in mind the people using these cameras aren't the ones spending inordinate hours pixel peeping in Photoshop.

Pocket wifi still means you have to carry two devices. A smartphone, effectively, gives you pocket wifi. As do some other small devices like this, but you're still having to carry two pieces of hardware.

Thom Hogan occasionally mentions stats; see his 2012 news archive and search for “An Ugly End to 2011 for Photography” near the bottom of the (very long) page:

We're now deep into the trend I predicted quite a few years ago: that smartphones and low-end system cameras would cannibalize compact cameras.

DCWatch reported that compact camera sales were down 17% over the first 11 months of 2011 over the same period in 2010. At the same time, interchangeable lens cameras were up 12%. Since the interchanageable lens camera market is about one-eighth the size of the compact camera market, the overall camera market probably declined.

Worse still, NPD has now reported that the five-week Christmas sales tally here in the US showed that point and shoot camera sales were down 20.8%, digital picture frames down 37.5%, and camcorders down a whopping 42.5%.

(I haven't looked for the original DCWatch item.)

Also, search the same page for the “What Would You Do?” entry that has a graph on predictions comparing sales of compact cameras and cellphone cameras, saying:

The numbers work out to 144m compact cameras in 2015, 1.515 billion cell phone cameras produced in the same year. Compact camera growth is anemic, at best (2%), while from 2011 to 2015 the cell phone camera market triples (200%).

I wonder what the impact of the decision regarding Apple v. Samsung will do; I also wonder how it would have gone down had it been heard anywhere but in California...

I still own no Apple product; not entirely a conscious decision, really, more that Apple computers were not well represented here and that the few published prices were a joke compared to what I could have made up to suit... The same holds for my cellphone - way cheaper and I see no less value. So yes, perhaps it was all a conscious decision after all.

RFPhotography

Likely nothing for a long while yet. Apple and Samsung will be embroiled in appeals for years. With over 700 questions the jury had to decide on, I have to question how seriously they did their jobs. Three days to decide on over 700 items? Not much consideration given, it seems.

In a similar action in Korea, a judge sided about 50/50 between the two, making it essentially a wash.

RFPhotography

The touch UI is really an Android issue, not a Samsung issue. The implementation of pinch to zoom has been around longer than the iPhone. The design of the hardware isn't really similar. And even if it is, there's not a lot you can do to the basic design of a bar phone with a large screen. Apple is acting more and more like a patent squatter. But that's way off topic.

Big difference between the Korean and U.S. cases is the Korean case was decided by a judge whereas the U.S. case was decided by a jury. Juries are the worst way to decide any legal proceeding. But that's way off topic.

As far as being able to 'afford the original', from a personal standpoint, I have no interest in paying a name premium for a product. That's all the price difference is. Nothing to do with quality or reliability. Never owned an Apple product and never will. Decision was made many years ago because I had no desire to line the pockets of the megalomaniac that ran the company and am too intelligent to be brainwashed by the Jobsian cult. But that's way off topic.